Tsipras says 'impossible' to repay Greek debt

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a letter that Athens will not be able to service its debt without financial help from the EU

23.03.2015

(AFP) Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has warned German Chancellor
Angela Merkel in a letter that Athens will not be able to service its
debt without financial help from the EU, the Financial Times reported on
Monday.

The newspaper said it has a copy of a letter dated March 15 in which
Tsipras "warns that his government will be forced to choose between
paying off loans, owed primarily to the International Monetary Fund, or
continue social spending."

"With this letter, I am urging you not to allow a small cash flow
issue, and a certain 'institutional inertia', to not turn into a large
problem for Greece and for Europe," Tsipras wrote.

Tsipras is to meet Merkel in Berlin later Monday.

The Greek leader has blamed Merkel's insistence on tough austerity
for his country's "humanitarian crisis" of poverty and mass
unemployment.

Merkel, for her part, insists that if cash-strapped Greece wants more
bailout loans, the biggest share of which is financed by Germany, it
must accept the bitter medicine of spending cuts and reforms.

Greece's creditors agreed in February to extend its 240-billion euro
($260 billion) bailout by four months in exchange for promises of
further reforms.

At an EU summit last week, Greece lobbied Brussels to release vital
funds to help it make payments to creditors in the coming days, and
avoid bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro.